Long Island (Bahamas, not New York)

I can' tbelieve it has been 3 weeks since our last blog.  Clearly, we are settling into the cruising life- "why do today what you can put off til tomorrow"!

We are currently anchored off the little settlement of Salt Pond, in Thompson Bay, Long Island.  It's a beautiful anchorage, and the town is a delight.  It is off th beaten path, but the island supports abour 4000 residents, so some of the conveniences are available. There are 2 good markets, and a nice little "resort" that offers wi-fi for the cruisers if you buy a  beer or 2(no problem there).

Realizing that Mar 19th was our last blog, I should catch you up on our travels since then.

We left Georgetown and decided to drop in to Emerald Bay(the nice resort we blogged about a while back) for a night(to get a few loads of laundry, take a long hot shower and pick up water/fuel.  Well, the luxury was hard to walk away from and we ended up staying there for 4 days. 

While we were there, we got a few projects done, including going up the mast to put on our lightning protection and replacing a bulb in the masthead light.  I sent Scott up to do this as he only weighs 160lbs).  Haley and Alana wanted to go up for the view so we hoisted them up there for fun.  Alana got this shot looking down(see bella on the dock).

We finally pulled out last Saturday and headed for Long Island(about 35 miles).  It was a nearly windless day, so we motored and drug a  few lures(nope- we didn't catch anything).

We dropped the hook on the SE side of Hog Cay at the northern end of Long Island and got up the next day for a short run down the island and pulled into Aligator Bay for the night.  We could have made it to Salt Pond, but wanted to take it easy and enjoy some of the nice places along the way(see- we are slowing down and enjoying the journey).  We go tinto Tompson Bay on Monday, in time to catch the fresh stuff comin goff the boat and into the market.

We settled in to life in Salt Pond this week, even renting a mnivan with Las Sirenas  to tour the south end of the island(difficult to do by boat because anything south of Deadmans Cay is very shallow and the sand flats extend miles out from the shore. 

The highlight of our land tour was a visit to Dean's Blue Hole- the site of the deepest blue hole in the world.  This month, the Suunto World Free Diving Championship is underway, with the best free divers on the planet competing for the breath-hold depth record. (google: dean's blue hole free diving).  It is amazing. 

We jumped from the cliffs and I did a few deep dives.  I set my personal best record of 79 feet for :55 seconds. I can see where this gets into your blood- the drive to dive deeper and push yourself to your limit.  The problem is that you don't know where your limit is until you narc out at depth (usually below 150') or black out during the ascent(usually in the last 20').  I have a ways to go to get close to the world record of 403 feet. 

We hit a few more cool places, stopped at a few little roadside dives for cold beers and local flavor.  It was a great day.

We've had a good time here but are leaving for Conception Island later today.   It is about 20 miles from the northern end of Long Island(about a 60 mile total trip from here), so we'll head out this afternoon and head up Long Island, then make the rest of the trip on Wednesday.  We'll be out of communication for a week or so.
Happy April birthdays to Megan, Olivia, Tom, Lynn , Sophia and Joan!  We miss you and we owe you all a hug and kiss!

Take care.  Leave us a comment